


Afternoon

by DigitalSiamese



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, First "I love you", Fluff, One Shot, Post-Endgame, very soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-04
Updated: 2019-07-04
Packaged: 2020-06-03 19:24:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19470544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DigitalSiamese/pseuds/DigitalSiamese
Summary: Bucky, and Nebula, and a warm afternoon.





	Afternoon

It's warm.

Sunlight filters through the half-open blinds, golden afternoon sky pouring into the quiet room. There's a window open somewhere. Cheerful birds sing in the distance, barely audible over the quiet hum of an electric fan. Summer is here, languid and easy-going, an infectious lazy mood that hangs in the air. Bucky has always been laid back - even after the war, and HYDRA, and all the other garbage he's gone through. Troubles are always close by; but on days like these, stretched out on a worn couch like a giant cyborg cat, he finds it a little easier to forget about them.

He lays there for a while on his own. He's just on the edge of drifting off to sleep when the door very, very softly clicks open, and a familiar face peeks around the corner. Bucky can't help a smile when he sees it. “Nebula?”

“James.” She slides a little further through the doorway, half in and half out. “I was just...uhm...” Stopping short, she tosses a glance back over her shoulder, looking as if she might decide to leave. It isn’t often that Bucky can guess what's on her mind, but fortunately this time he can. “Come here,” he says, waving her over. “There's enough room for both of us.”

Grateful, Nebula slips across the room and into his arms, her body stretching out comfortably alongside his. It's taken a long time to build up this level of trust between them. Bucky's heart swells with affection when he thinks about how far they've come together, about how the most amazing woman in the entire galaxy is _right here_ with _him_. “Talk to me,” he says gently.

Nebula is silent for a minute, and he gives her time. “I was thinking,” she says at last. He can feel the vibrations of her voice in her chest. “About you.”

_Oh?_

“I spent five years on Earth and never once saw it as more than just a place. And then I left, and I thought I would never return.” There's no heat rushing to her face, but there would have been if her body still held the capacity for such sensations. “But now, Earth is more to me. It is...a home.” She pauses, then whispers, “Because of you.” There’s an unsaid _thank you_ somewhere in there, too complex for words.

Smiling, Bucky holds her just a little tighter, turning his head to press a kiss on her forehead. A comfortable silence falls between them. They lay together on that old couch for a long time, warm and unhurried, Bucky tracing soft designs along Nebula’s skin, Nebula committing the way his touch feels to memory.

Maybe it’s something in the air, or it’s the mid-Summer atmosphere, or his propensity for being reckless - whatever it is that suddenly grabs Bucky in this moment fills him with an unshakable urge, and before he knows what he’s saying, the words tumble out of his mouth: “I love you, Nebula.”

Nebula stiffens. _Crap._

“What?” she asks, pulling up and away to look him in the eye. “What did you say?”

For half a second he isn’t sure how to respond; but really, the damage is done, so to speak - you can’t un-say what’s already been said. So he smiles bashfully, and repeats in a voice gentler than Nebula has ever heard before, “I love you, Nebula.”

The expression on her face is unreadable. She stares at him, gaze locked firmly with his own, processing, processing, processing...

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to put you on the spot -” he begins, and that’s as far as he gets because all at once she’s kissing him, rough and unpracticed, making his stomach do somersaults. He brings a hand to her cheek as the kiss softens, stretching up to peck her lips one last time as they break apart.

“James,” she mutters. She clears her throat. “I...” Her fingers curl, bunching up his cotton shirt. “I think...I love you, too.”

Bucky grins, bright and wide and dazzling, and the smile that Nebula gives him makes his entire life worthwhile.

**Author's Note:**

> I gave myself cavities writing this. I hope it isn't too out-of-character.
> 
> I thought about this paring one (1) time and then suddenly I couldn't stop thinking about them together, so I had to write a little something for it.


End file.
